The History of the British National Health system
Before the Second World War the British person had to rely on private and charitable hospital treatment, there was no such thing as free treatment. If you fell ill, you would have to send out for a Doctor who would charge the patient for his time and diagnosis, if he felt that you needed to go to an hospital once again you would have to pay, if you could not pay for hospital treatment then a charity would step in and pay for your stay and treatment.
Along with the treatment came the medicine, again, this was expensive and you had to pay for it.
In 1944, the new labour Government decided that this was unacceptable and it was decided that from that date everyone would receive free treatment from Doctors and Government subsidised prescriptions along with free treatment in hospitals.
The Labour Government also decided that they would look after every British citizen from the cradle to the grave; this means that from the moment the British citizen is born they would receive free education free health treatment and would be looked after when ever they retired with a pension.
From that moment in 1944 the British Health system was born. New Doctors surgeries’ sprang up in every town village and city, every family in Great Britain had to register with there local surgery. In every school, there would be a nurse who would look after the children’s health, she would immunize every child from ailments like smallpox, measles, chicken pox, as well as looking for head lice, and I well remember the nurses in my schools we used to call them the nit nurses.
As well as free treatment for our health, we would also get free treatment for our teeth and also our eyes.
To day, we still receive free treatment, we still have doctor’s surgeries that every family has to register with, but they have changed considerably, my doctors surgery has six full time doctors, with at least six full time state registered nurses, it also has at least three midwives, with part time chiropodists’.
Our hospitals cater for every ailment under the sun, state of the art equipment adorns every hospital, with homegrown doctors and nurses working along side doctors and nurses from all over the world.
Our children no longer have to see the dreaded nit nurse; all immunisations are done at the doctor’s surgery, we no longer get free dental treatment unless you are a child or you are over sixty, the same applies to our eye treatment.
We have to pay for our prescriptions but we only pay £7.50 per medicine, children do not have to pay for there prescriptions until they are sixteen years of age, when we reach the good old age of sixty we no longer have to pay for our medicine. We also get free eye tests but have to pay for our glasses.
When a child is born in Britain the parents get £250 that is invested for there child, when the child reaches five they are then given a further £250 to be invested making a total of £500 the child nor the parents cannot touch this money until the child reaches adulthood, the child then can use that money to further there education at a university, as that money is invested for 18 years it will grow to a tidy sum of money. The Government invests this money for the parents and the child.
Off course now one gets anything for nothing in life, everything must be paid for, so our tax is one of the highest in the world.
We pay three types of tax.
The first tax is called income tax; this is what we pay when we earn our salaries, either weekly or monthly, there is two bands of income tax the first one is 20% and you can earn up to £36,000 per year. The second band is 40% and we have to pay that on anything over £36,000. All the tax is stopped each week or month and is given to the Government, if any person has any other earnings they must declare it to the Tax authorities.
We also have what is called National insurance, this is also stopped from what we earn each week or month, we pay £45 a week that is topped up by our employers by at least £80; this is supposed to pay for our health service and our pensions.
There is also one more tax that we pay, and that is VAT short for valued added tax, when we go shopping every item that we buy from a car to a cake we pay 17% on each item. The only exceptions are on essential food like veg fruit and bread and milk and eggs and also would you believe it, biscuits, children's clothes, and shoes are also exempt.
The British health service is the biggest employer in Great Britain.
Along with the our health system, we also have a good benefit system that runs alongside the health system, if we fall ill while we work we get sickness benefit, this is about £65 a week for a person that has no family, if you have a family we will get more.
If you become disabled like my wife, you are entitled to disability benefit and a carer’s allowance. You can take the money or like we do pay for a mobility car.
Anyone that comes to Great Britain and falls ill or has an accident will never be turned away from any hospital; they would get the same treatment that any British citizen gets.
Of course, this system is open to abuse by many foreign visitors; many have come to Great Britain on the pretext of a vacation and then have had serious operations free, only too disappear back to there native country.
Britain is now in the European Union, this means that all citizens from any country in the Union can work and get the hospital treatment with no questions asked, along with any benefit that any British citizen is entitled too.
The influx of all these people put great strain on our economy. Nevertheless, when you think of it rationally it is a small price to pay for a decent Health Service.
We have medical insurance companies who specialise in medical cover; the problem is that they use the doctors and nurses of the NHS. To give you an example of what it would cost in Great Britain if we went private and had to have medical insurance, for a hip replacement it would cost a British patient £12,000 for the operation, then there would be the cost of the aftercare and the cost of the aftercare medicine. My wife in the last two years has had two hip operations that would have cost £24,000 plus the cost of the aftercare, we would have had two have had medical insurance that would have cost about £150 a month or more, and then the operation would have been at the discretion of the insurance company. It has not been unknown for the insurance companies to withhold the operations stating the fact that the person is two obese and that its there fault that they have to have these operations.
As we grow older and older it’s a pleasing thought that all in Great Britain will never be told that we cannot get medical treatment, for as we all know this is when we will need it the most.
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Comments: 27
You have paid in 2160 per year for National Insurance for how many years? And you pay 40% of your income? And then 17% tax on purchases except for some foods and basics?
I don't know what the rate of exchange is between US dollars and your pounds, so I can't really judge the amounts, but the percentages seem very high.
http://www.geocities.com/libramoon.geo/thoughts.htm
I suggest that we try financing our governmental projects via
sales tax. After all, we do have at least some control over what
we spend in terms of keeping within our family budget. Certain
necessity items would be exempt from taxation: food, basic
clothing (say items under $100 retail), medical supplies, heating
fuel, childcare, education. Items in a luxury category might be
taxed at a higher rate. All commercial transactions involving
nonexempt items, at all levels along the process from manufacture
to retail, could be taxed, as well as all service transactions
(excluding necessary services, such as medical care, etc.).
Business people already must keep tax records and many states
already have sales taxes, so the recordkeeping aspect should not
be a problem. Regular wage earners, as opposed to those who sell
products or services, would no longer need to be plagued by the
need to keep records of all their financial transactions, nor
would employers need to keep tax withholding records for their
employees. High duties on major purchases brought in from other
countries could help to keep those with the means from buying
abroad to avoid taxation (or perhaps other countries could also
adopt this means of taxation). Savings on the government's end
might be effected by doing away with subsidies for certain
groups, such as farmers and oil producers, when they have the
advantage of tax exempt products and fewer taxes to pay in
production. Hopefully, this would also result in lower prices in
general for such commodities at the consumers' level. Therefore
we could have a turn around of the present system of the lower
income people supporting the higher in terms of tax liability.
Another suggestion I have would add greatly to the national
income and lower the high costs of prisons, courts, law
enforcement, and social services.
Marilyn
Just one question, though. In the public opinion polls which are inevitably conducted, what is the opinion of the system among the British?
It does seem a lot over the years, but it also pays for all the treatment and welfare benefits that people in need when they are out of work through no fault of there own, like now as we are going through this world wide recession.
I suppose the opinion of the British person is one of indifference, there are many faults with hospitals as there would be with all large institutions that employ many people. However the one great moan that the British public have over this system is that there are people that do not work and have no intention of working that are entitled to everything that the honest worker gets. this also applies to when ever we see people that come into our country solely to abuse this good system.
Speaking for myself I have found that it is like what Georgiana says it is, Remember that we dont have to pay for any treatment at all, only a small amount for our medicine, and if you cannot pay for the medicine then there is welfair to pay for it. Further more I think I am right in saying, that in Wales and in Scotland they do not even have to pay for there medicine.
I LIKE our NHS. Those who wish can also choose private medical insurance and, indeed, my family is covered by payments my husband makes. He uses private care all the time, but even then... you must gain a referral to the specialist via your NHS GP. I do not wish to opt out of the NHS as I feel it more than covers my requirements - and I have various long-term intractable medical conditions - so it's not just because I do not use the system that I stand by it!
There is a question that I would like to ask. I have been to your country a few times, we have to take out travel insurance of up to £10,000,000 to pay for any treatment that we would receive if we fell ill while in your country. The question is if I did not have this insurance and say I had an heart attack would I be turned away from your hospitals if I could not pay for my treatment. We hear of many things over in Great Britain many I am sure are lies
I didn't realize that Scotland had a different system...
The waiting lists to get treatment have been cut dramatically over the past few years, and we can even get treatment in other European country's paid for by the National Health. To me and many people like Ishbell its a great system, and one I think that we can be quite justifiably proud of
The people that live next door to me, who have just moved in are doctors, the husband is an heart surgeon and is wife just an ordinary doctor. Remember that I said that British doctors work along side doctors from all over the world in our hospitals, well he is from Syria and his wife is from France, seing that I am getting on in life now its good to know that I live next door to heart surgeon, nothing like having a heat specialist on your doorstep is there. I know were to go if I start to get chest pains.
Seriously though waiting 12 to 18 hours to get treated is not very nice is it, I hope all of you can persuade your Government to bring in something like what we have, I bet it is cheaper to get a cheap flight to my country to have a operation then disappear back home. why not everyone else is doing it, at least your country is friendly with ours, some of the people that come into my country are not so friendly but it does not stop them from coming over to have an operation.